Compound bodies of the above-mentioned type include parts subject to wear which are armored by welded-on alloys. The welded-on alloys include hard substance or hard metal particles which are enclosed by a welding electrode jacket. When welded onto a metallic substrate, the electrode jacket forms a metal matrix in which the hard substance and hard metal particles are embedded. The metallic substrate and the electrode jacket may be made of the same alloy. The welded-on material forms the wear resistant zone of the part subject to wear. However, the use of welded-on alloys is limited as only thin layers adhere tightly enough to the metal substrate and such thin layers are destroyed relatively quickly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,997 discloses a wear resistant compound body of the above-mentioned type in which the basic material includes 1 to 4 weight percent carbon, 0.3 to 0.6 weight percent silicon, 0.5 to 1.5 weight percent manganese, 0.8 to 2.8 weight percent vanadium, 0.5 to 1.5 weight percent chromium, 2 to 10 weight percent tungsten, 0.01 weight percent aluminum, the remainder being iron, wherein the initial ratio of hard substances and hard metals, respectively, to the basic material is 1:5, with the hard substance and/or hard metal particles having a grain size of from 0.5 to 5 mm. This compound body is produced by adding hard metal and/or hard substance grains, in a size range of from 0.5 to 5 mm, to a liquid metal alloy which has been melted and poured into a mold, whereby the hard metal and hard substance particles descend in the melt before the alloy solidifies. The compound body of U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,997 has the drawback that its basic material is difficult to machine and that, therefore, it is practically impossible to produce a region free of hard substance and/or hard metal from the basic material. Rather, the compound body known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,997 must be soldered or welded onto a metallic substrate if it is to be used in a wear resistant workpiece or machine part. An additional drawback of this procedure has been found, as the alloy of which the basic material of the compound body according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,997 is comprised is difficult to weld.